Glossary of literary terms
The following is a list of literary terms; that is, those words used in discussion, classification, criticism, and analysis of poetry, novels and picture books. :See also: Glossary of poetry terms, Literary criticism, Literary theory A Abecedarius | Academic drama | Acatalectic | Accent | Accentual verse | Accentual-syllabic verse | Acrostic | Aisling | Allegory | Alliteration | Allusion | Anachronism | Anacrusis | Anadiplosis | Anagnorisis | Analects | Analepsis | Analogue | Analogy | Anapaest: Anapest | Anaphora | Anastrophe | Anecdote | Annal | Annotation | Antagonist | Antanaclasis | Antepenult | Anthology | Anticlimax | Anti-hero | Anti-masque | Anti-romance | Antimetabole | Antinovel | Antistrophe | Antithesis | Antonym | Aphorism | Apocope | Apocrypha | Apollonian and Dionysian | Apologue | Apologetics | Apology: Apologetics | Apothegm | Aposiopesis | Apostrophe *Apron stage *Arcadia *Archaism *Archetype *Aristeia *Argument *Arsis *Art for art's sake *Asemic writing *Aside *Assonance *Asyndeton *Atmosphere *Attitude *Aube *Aubade *Audience *Autobiography *Autotelic *Avant-garde B "Rochester Bestiary."]] *Ballad *Ballade *Ballad stanza *Bard *Baroque *Bathos *Beast fable (beast epic) *Beast poetry *Beat Generation *Beginning rhyme *Belles-lettres *Bestiary *Beta reader *Bibliography *Bildungsroman *Biography *Black comedy *Blank verse *Bloomsbury Group *Body *Bombast (fustian) *Boulevard theatre *Bourgeosis drama *Bouts-Rimés *Bowdlerize *Breviloquence *Broadside *Burlesque *Burletta *Burns stanza *Buskin *Byronic hero C *Cadence *Caesura *Calligram *Canon *Canso *Canticum *Canto *Canzone *''Capa y espada'' *Captivity narrative *Caricature *''Carmen figuratum'' *''Carpe diem'' *Catachresis *Catalectic *Catalexis *Catastrophe *Catharsis *Caudate sonnet *Cavalier drama *Cavalier poetry *Celtic Revival *Celtic Twilight *Caesura *Chain of Being *Chain verse *''Chanson de geste'' *Chansonnier *Chant royal *Chantey *Chanty *Chapbook *Character *Characterization *Charactonym *Chaucerian stanza *Chiasmus *Chivalric romance *Choriamb *Choriambus *Chorus *Chronicle *Chronicle play *Cinquain *Classicism *Classification (literature) *Classification of rhymes (Peter Dale) *Clerihew *Cliché *Climax *Cloak-and-sword play *Closed heroic couplet *Closet drama *''Comédie larmoyante'' *Colloquialism *Comedy *Comedy of errors *Comedy of humors *Comedy of intrigue *Comedy of manners *Comedic relief *''Commedia dell'arte'' *Comic relief *Common measure *Commonplace book *Common rhyme *''Comoedia erudate'' *Comparative linguistics *Compensation *Complaint *Conceit *Concordance *Concrete universal *Confessional literature *Confidant/confidante *Conflict *Connotation *Consistency *Consonance *Contradiction *Context *Contrast *Convention *Copyright *Counterplot *''Coup de théâtre'' *Couplet *Courtesy book *Courtly love *Cowleyan ode *Cradle books *Craft cycle *Crisis *Criticism *Cross acrostic *Crown of sonnets *Curtain raiser *Curtal sonnet D *Dactyl *Dada *Dale's classification of rhymes *Dandyism *''Débat '' *Death poem *Death of the novel *Debut novel *Decadence *Decasyllabic verse *Decorum *Denotation *Dénouement *Description *Descriptive linguistics *Detective story *''Deus ex machina'' *Deuteragonist *Dialect *Diacope *Dialogue *Dibrach *Dicks *Diction *Didactic *Digest *Digression *Dime novel *Diameter *Dipody *Dirge *Discourse *Dissociation of sensibility *Dissonance *Distich *Distributed Stress *Dithyramb *Diverbium *Divine afflatus *Doggerel *''Dolce stil nuove'' *Domestic tragedy *''Donnée'' *''Doppelgänger'' *Double *Double rhyme *Drama *Drama of sensibility *Dramatic character *Dramatic irony *Dramatic lyric *Dramatic monologue *Dramatic proverb *''Dramatis personae'' *Dramaturgy *Dream allegory *Dream vision *Droll *Dumb show *Duodecimo *Duologue *Duple meter/duple rhythm *Dystopia * Dynamic Character E *Echo verse *Eclogue *Edition *Ekphrasis *Elegiac couplet *Elegiac meter *Elegy *Elision *Emblem *Emblem book *Emendation *Emotive language *Encomiastic verse *End rhyme *End-stopped line *English sonnet *Enjambment *Entr'acte *Envoy /envoi *''Èpater le bourgeois'' *Epic poetry *Epic simile *Epic Theater *Epigraph *Epilogue *Epiphany *Episode *Episteme *Epistle *Epistolary novel *Epistrophe *Epitaph *Epithalamion *Epithet *Epizeuxis *Epode *Eponymous author *Equivalence *''Erziehungsroman'' *Essay *Ethos *Eulogy *Euphony *Euphuism *Evidence *Exegesis *Exemplum *Existentialism *Exordium *Experimental novel *''Explication de texte'' *Exposition *Expressionism *Extended metaphor *Extension *Extrametrical verse *Extravaganza *Eye rhyme F *Fable *Fabliau *Falling action *Falling rhythm *Fancy and imagination *Fantasy *Farce *Feeling *Feminine ending *Feminine rhyme *Fiction *Figurative language *Figure of speech *''Fin de siècle'' *Flashback *Flashforward *Flat character *Fleshly school *Foil *Folio *Folk drama *Folklore *Folk tale *Foot *Foreshadowing *Form *Four levels of meaning *Four meanings of a poem *Fourteener *Frame story *Free verse *French forms *Freytag's pyramid *Fugitives and Agrarians *Fustian *Futurism G , a collection of love and vagabond songs in Goliardic verse from Benediktbeurn Monastery.]] *Gallows humor *Gamebooks *Gathering *Genetic fallacy *Genius and talent *Genre *Georgian poetry *Georgics *Gesta *Gloss *Gnomic verse *Golden line *Goliardic verse *Gongorism *Gonzo journalism *Gothic novel *Grand Guignol *Graveyard poetry *Graveyard school *Greek tragedy *Grub Street *Grundyism *Guignol H *Hagiography *Hagiology *Haikai *Haikai no renga *Haiku *Half rhyme *Hamartia *Handwaving *Headless line *Head rhyme *Hebraism-Hellenism *"The Hedgehog and the Fox" *Hemistich *Hendecasyllable *Hendecasyllabic verse *Heptameter *Heptastrich *Heresy of paraphrase *Hero *Heroic couplets *Heroic drama *Heroic quatrain *Heroic stanza *Hexameter *Hexastich *Hiatus *High comedy *Higher criticism *Historical linguistics *Historical novel *Historic present *History play *Hokku *Holograph *Homeric epithet *Homeric simile *Homily *Horatian ode *Horatian satire *Hornbook *Hovering accent *Hubris *Hudibrastic *Humor *Humours *Hybris *Hymn *Hymnal stanza *Hypallage *Hyperbole *Hypercatalectic *Hypermetrical *Hypocorism *Hysteron-proteron *Hypotactic I *Iambic pentameter *Ideology *Idiom *Idyll *Imagery *Imagism *Impressionism *Indeterminacy *Inference *''In medias res'' *Innuendo *Internal conflict *Internal rhyme *Interpretation *Intertextuality *Intuitive description *Irony J *Jacobean era *Jeremiad *Journal *Judicial criticism *Juncture *Juggernaut *Juvenalian satire *Juxtaposition K *Kabuki *Kafkaesque *Katharsis *Kenning *Kigo *"King's English" *Kireji *''Kitsch'' *''Künstlerroman'' L *Lai *Lake Poets *Lament *Lampoon *''L'art pour l'art'' *Laureate *Lay *Leaf *Legend *Legitimate theater *Leonine rhyme *Lexis *Letters *Level stress (even accent) *Libretto *Light ending *Light poetry *Light rhyme *Light stress *Light poetry *Limerick *Linguistics *Linked rhyme *Link sonnet *Literary ballad *Literary criticism *Literary epic *Literary realism *Literary theory *Literature *Litotes *Litterateur *Liturgical drama *Living Newspaper *Local color *Logaoedic *Logical fallacy *Logical stress *Logos *Long metre *Loose sentence *Lost Generation *Low comedy *Lullaby *Lyric M *Macaronic language *Madrigal *Magic realism *Malapropism *''Märchen'' *Marginalia *Marinism *Marivauge *Marxist literary criticism *Masculine ending *Masculine rhyme *Masked comedy *Masque *Maxim *Meaning *Medieval drama *Meiosis *Melic poetry *Melodrama *Memoir *Menippean satire *Mesostich *Metaphor *Metaphysical conceit *Metaphorical language *Metaphysical poets *Meter *Metonymy *Metre *Metrical accent *Metrical foot *Metrical structure *Middle Comedy *''Miles gloriosus'' *Miltonic sonnet *Mime *Mimesis *Minnesang *Minstrel *Mystery play (miracle play) *Miscellanies *''Mise en scène'' *Mixed metaphor *Mock-heroic (mock epic) *Mode *Modernism *Monodrama *Monody *Monograph *Monologue *Monometer (monopody) *Monostich *Monograph *Mood *Mora *Moral *Morality play *Motif *Motivation *Movement *Mummery *Muses *Musical comedy *Mystery play *Mythology N *Narrative point of view *Narrator *Naturalism *Neologism *Non-fiction *Non-fiction novel *Novel *Novelette *Novella *Novelle *narrative poem O *Objective correlative *Objective criticism *Obligatory scene *Octameter *Octave *Ode *Oedipus complex *Onomatopoeia *Open couplet *Oulipo *Orchestra *Ottava rima *Oxymoron P *Palinode *Pantoum *Pantun *Parable *Paraclausithyron *Paradelle *Paradox *Paraphrase *Pararhyme *Paratactic *Partimen *Pastourelle *Pathetic fallacy *Pathya Vat *Parallelism *Parody *Pastoral *Pathos *Pentameter *Periodic sentence *Peripetia *Perspective *Persona *Personification *Phronesis *''Pièce bien faite'' *Picaresque novel *Plain Style *Platonic *Plot *Poem *Poem and song *Poetic diction *Poetic justice *Poetic transrealism *Poetry *Point of view *Polysyndeton *Post-colonialism *Postmodernism *Pound's Ideogrammic Method *Primal scene *Procatalepsis *Prolepsis *Prologue *Progymnasmata *Prose *Prosimetrum *Prosody (poetry) *Protagonist *Proverb *Pruning poem *Psychoanalytic literary criticism *Psychoanalytic theory *Pun *Purple prose *Purpose for Reading *Pyrrhic Q *Quatrain R *Reader-response criticism *Realism *Redaction *Red herring *Refrain *Regency novel *Regionalism (literature) *Renga *Renku *Repetition *Resolution *Reverse chronology *Rhapsodes *Rhetoric *Rhetorical agency *Rhetorical device *Rhetorical operations *Rhetorical question *Rhetorical tension *Rhyme *Rhymed prose *Rhyme royal *Robinsonade *Romance (genre) *Romance novel *Romanticism *Romanzo d' appendice *Roman à clef *Round character *Round-robin story *Ruritanian romance *Russian formalism S *Satire *Scanning *Scansion *''Scene a faire'' *Sea shanty *Semiotics *Semiotic literary criticism *Setting *Shanty *Sestet *Sequence of events *Shakespearean sonnet *Sicilian octave *Simile *Slant rhyme *Slice of life *Sobriquet *Soliloquy *Sonnet *Sonneteer *Speaker *Spenserian stanza *Sprung rhythm *Strambotto *Stanza *Static character *Stigma of print *Stereotype *Stream of consciousness *Structuralism *Subplot *Syllogism *Symbol *Synecdoche *Synesthesia *Syntax T Tone: very vague critical term usually designating the mood or atmosphere of a work, although in some more restricted uses it refers to the author's attitude to the reader (e.g. formal, intimate, pompous) or to the subject-matter (e.g. ironic, light, solemn, satiric, sentimental). Example: Theme: salient abstract idea that emerges from a literary work's treatment of its subject-matter; or a topic recurring in a number of literary works. Example: While the subject of a work is described concretely in terms of its action (e.g. 'the adventures of a newcomer in the big city'), its theme or themes will be described in more abstract terms (e.g. love, war, revenge, betrayal, fate, etc.). *Tautology *Tableau *Tail rhyme *Tagelied *Tale *Techne *Telestich *Tenor *Tension *Tercet *''Terza rima'' *Tetrameter *Tetrastich *Text *Textual criticism *Textuality *Texture *Theater of Cruelty *Theater of the Absurd *Theme *Thesis *Thesis play *Third person narrative *Threnody *Tirade *Tmesis *Tone *Tract *Tractarian Movement *Tragedy *Tragedy of blood *Tragic flaw *Tragic hero *Tragic irony *Tragicomedy *Tranche de vie *Transcendentalism *Transferred epithet *Transition *Translation *Travesty *Triad *Tribe of Ben *Tribrach *Trimeter *Triolet *Triple rhyme *Triple meter *Triple rhythm *Triplet *Tristich *Tritagonist *Trivium *''Trobar clus'' *Trochee *Trope (literature) *Troubadour *Trouvère *Truncated line *Tumbling verse *Type character *Type scene U *''Ubi sunt'' *Underground culture *Underground press *Understatement *Unities *Unity *Universality (disambiguation) *University Wits *Unobtainium *Utopia *Utopian and dystopian fiction *Unreliable narrator V *Variable syllable *Variorum *Varronian satire (Menippean satire) *''Vates'' *Vaudeville *Vehicle *Verb displacement *Verbal irony *Verisimilitude *Verism *''Vers de société'' *Verse *Verse paragraph *''Vers libre'' *Verso *Victorianism *Viewpoint *Vignette *Villain *Villanelle *Virelay *Virgule *Voice (of the writer) *Voice (in phonetics) *Volta *Vorticism *Vulgate W *Wardour Street English *Weak ending *Weak foot *Well-made play *Wellerism *Western fiction *Wimmering *Wit *Word accent *Wrenched accent *Watermark References *M. H. Abrams. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Thomson-Wadsworth, 2005. ISBN 1-4130-0456-3. *Chris Baldick. The Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford Univ. Press, 2004. ISBN 0-19-860883-7. *Chris Baldick. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford Univ. Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-280118-X. *Edwin Barton & G. A. Hudson. Contemporary Guide To Literary Terms. Houghton-Mifflin, 2003. ISBN 0-618-34162-5. *Mark Bauerlein. Literary Criticism: An Autopsy. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8122-1625-3. *Karl Beckson & Arthur Ganz. Literary Terms: A Dictionary. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989. ISBN 0-374-52177-8. *Peter Childs. The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms. Routledge, 2005. ISBN 0-415-34017-9. *J. A. Cuddon. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Penguin Books, 2000. ISBN 0-14-051363-9 . *Dana Gioia. The Longman Dictionary of Literary Terms: Vocabulary for the Informed Reader. Longman, 2005. ISBN 0-321-33194-X. *Sharon Hamilton. Essential Literary Terms: A Brief Norton Guide with Exercises. W. W. Norton, 2006. ISBN 0-393-92837-3. *William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. Prentice Hall, 2005. ISBN 0-13-134442-0. *X. J. Kennedy, et al. Handbook of Literary Terms: Literature, Language, Theory. Longman, 2004. ISBN 0-321-20207-4. *V. B. Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. W. W. Norton, 2001. ISBN 0-393-97429-4. *Frank Lentricchia & Thomas McLaughlin. Critical Terms for Literary Study. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1995. ISBN 0-226-47203-5. *David Mikics. A New Handbook of Literary Terms. Yale Univ. Press, 2007. ISBN 0-300-10636-X. *Ross Murfin & S. M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. ISBN 0-312-25910-7. *John Peck & Martin Coyle. Literary Terms and Criticism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. ISBN 0-333-96258-3. *Edward Quinn. A Dictionary of Literary And Thematic Terms. Checkmark Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8160-6244-7. *Lewis Turco. The Book of Literary Terms: The Genres of Fiction, Drama, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, and Scholarship. Univ. Press of New England, 1999. ISBN 0-87451-955-1. External links *All American: Glossary of Literary Terms, University of North Carolina at Pembroke. *Literary Vocabulary, Carson-Newman College. [[Category:Literary criticism|Terms] Terms Category:Literary terms Category:Literature lists